Unlawfully lawyering …

The SEC has charged a lawyer who formerly worked at one of Silicon Valley’s better-known law firms with participating in an insider-trading scheme. Allegedly, the lawyer collected information about pending deals and passed it on to a compatriot via a mutual acquaintance, using disposal cell phones and other anonymous means of communication.

The SEC alleges that Matthew H. Kluger, who formerly worked at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, and Garrett D. Bauer did not have a direct relationship with each other, but were linked only through a mutual friend who acted as a middleman to facilitate the illegal scheme.